"Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, "so let the wives be to their own husbands, in "everything." You will find, too, that in the seventh chapter of First Corinthians, Paul laments that all men are not bachelors like himself, and in the second verse of that chapter he gives the only reason for which he was willing that men and women should marry. He advised all the unmarried, and all widows, to remain 128 as he was. In the ninth verse of this same chapter is a slander too vulgar for repetition,--an estimate of woman and of woman's love so low and vile, that every woman should hold the inspired author in infinite abhorrence. Paul sums up the whole matter, however, by telling those who have wives or husbands, to stay with them--as necessary evils only to be tolerated--but sincerely regrets that anybody was ever married; and finally says that: "They that have wives should be as though they "had none;" because, in his opinion: "He that is unmarried careth for the things that "belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord; "but he that is married careth for the things that are "of the world, how he may please his wife." "There is this difference also," he tells us, "be- "tween a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman "careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be "holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is "married careth for the things of the world, how she " may please her husband." Of course, it is contended that these things have tended to the elevation of woman. The idea that it is better to love the Lord than to 129 love your wife, or your husband, is infinitely absurd. Nobody ever did love the Lord,--nobody can--until he becomes acquainted with him. Saint Paul also tells us that "Man is the image "and glory of God; but woman is the glory of "man;" and for the purpose of sustaining this posi- tion, says: "For the man is not of the woman, but the woman "of the man; neither was the man created for the "woman, but the woman for the man." Of course, we can all see that man could have gotten along well enough without woman, but woman, by no possibility, could have gotten along without man. And yet, this is called "inspired;" and this apostle Paul is supposed to have known more than all the people now upon the earth. No wonder Paul at last was constrained to say: "We are fools for "Christ's sake." _Question_. How do you account for the present condition of woman in what is known as "the civilized "world," unless the Bible has bettered her condition? _Answer_. We must remember that thousands of things enter into the problem of civilization. Soil, climate, and geographical position, united with count- 130 less other influences, have resulted in the civilization of our time. If we want to find what the influence of the Bible has been, we must ascertain the condition of Europe when the Bible was considered as abso- lutely true, and when it wielded its greatest influence.